President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to urgently establish Border Control Enforcement Agency with full Executive Order that will enable it to function optimally in a bid to tackling the prevailing insurgency and also boost the nation’s economic activities.
A group, Social Integrity Network (SINET) made this call in a statement made available to newsmen at the weekend by its national coordinator, Mallam Ibrahim Issa, saying that the peace and unity of Nigeria remained sacrosanct and must not be negotiated for any other interests.
This was just as the group commended the president over what it termed “the border closure policy,” stressing that the decision had further demonstrated his desire to secure the nation from insurgents.
According to the group, the Border Control Agency, if created, will ensure maximum prevention of human trafficking, smuggling of dangerous weapons, importation of substandard products as well as restriction of illegal migrants into the country.
“It is obvious that leaving border monitoring in the purview the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) alone cannot serve the overall interest of Nigerians because events have shown that Customs is only after revenue generation with no cognizance attention to securing the nation.
“The jobs of revenue generation, border security mechanism, human-trafficking control, anti-smuggling policy enforcement and regulation of migrants are beyond Customs operational technique alone, therefore, there is an urgent need for the emergence of an effective agency before the reopening of borders.
“Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa with over 200million population density and with the recent African Continental Free Trade Agreement, Customs alone cannot secure our borders effectively and this will subject Nigeria to high economic risk and sabotage,” the group said.
Speaking further, SINET said there was a need for more holistic intervention to arrest what it described as “this felonious situation,” even as it commended President Buhari for taking bold steps towards salvaging the economic interest of local manufacturers as well as curbing insecurity which had ravaged some states in the North-East.
“This was part of our public outcries during a peaceful protest held recently in Kaduna; we thank Mr President for heeding to our plights.
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“The move by the Federal governme6nt towards ensuring adequate protection of lives and property of the Nigeria citizenry as well as promoting local contents by stemming down smuggling on the nation’s border is a laudable effort towards the actualization of the much-anticipated reversal of the Pre-shipment Inspection Cancellation.
“We plead with President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently approve the establishment of Border Control System in order to ensure effective monitoring of the influx of illegal activities into the country.
“It is saddened to note that smuggling is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into our wellbeing as a people and crippled the economic fortunes of our dear country. While Nigeria depends on high lending rates to execute projects, our revenue expectations are at a stand-still due to wrong declarations of goods at the ports with a strong conspiracy between importers and officers of Nigeria Customs Service, (NCS) and officials of Standard Organization of Nigeria, (SON),” the group stated.
Meanwhile, SINET has called on the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Hon. Olamilekan Adegbite, to be committed to the implementation of the nation’s Industrial Revolution Roadmap, (IRR) as well as the Backward Integration Policy, (BIP) of the present administration.
It also appealed to the leadership of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN) to create more awareness among members in order to ensure effective implementation of the new order as the government had taken the right step “and we are still expecting more actions in that regards in the economic interest of the nation.”
SINET, however, urged MAN to use it’s 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM) to adopt policy frameworks that would serve national interest and also address the high expectations of members in a bid to secure the jobs of many Nigerians.
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